Champions Square is not just for tailgating anymore. On Monday, New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner/vice chairman Rita Benson LeBlanc announced “Bold Sphere Music at Champions Square,” a concert series at the outdoor venue adjacent to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and Smoothie King Center.

The first announced shows are country star Jake Owen on Aug. 23 and a contemporary R&B package featuring Boyz II Men, En Vogue and Keith Sweat on Aug. 24. Tickets to the Boyz II Men show go on sale this Friday, Feb. 28. Tickets to Jake Owen go on sale March 7.

The concert series will play out in a redesigned Champions Square. LeBlanc consulted with veteran concert promoter Russell Doussan’s north shore-based Blue Deuce Entertainment, and Red Mountain Entertainment, a concert and events promotion firm based in Birmingham, Ala., to remake Champions Square as a “boutique amphitheater.” Blue Deuce and Red Mountain will curate the music series as well.

“I have a tremendous amount of faith in Russell’s reputation in the industry,” LeBlanc said. “And he has experience with this type of property.”

Champions Square can accommodate 9,000 patrons for a standing-room-only general admission concert, or 5,200 for a reserved-seat show. It can also present a mix of both reserved seats and general admission at a capacity of around 7,000.

“We can do it however an act wants,” said Red Mountain’s Jay Wilson. “This fills a huge void. It’s the small, mid-level amphitheater that New Orleans never had.”

The capacity is less than that of the Smoothie King Center. It is similar to the capacity of the Lakefront Arena on the University of New Orleans campus.

The goal for the Bold Sphere Music series is to present between 12 and 18 concerts at Champions Square annually, LeBlanc said, in addition to corporate functions and performances related to other major festivals and sporting events.

The view from the new, permanent stage at Champions Square. The Bold Sphere Music at Champions Square concert series will present around a dozen shows there this year, organizers say.Keith Spera / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

The revamped facility in the shadow of Benson Tower includes dressing rooms and production offices inside what was once a Macy’s department store. Eighteen private boxes of eight seats apiece will be available for leasing, fostering a “corporate hospitality environment” conducive to more informal business interaction before and after concerts, Doussan said.

In 2013, Champions Square hosted concerts by fun., Sigur Ros and Merle Haggard on a temporary stage. A larger, custom-designed permanent stage, dubbed the Bold Sphere Stage, has now been installed. At 101 feet wide, 65 feet deep and six feet tall, with a load capacity of 100,000 pounds, the stage can accommodate essentially any touring production, Doussan said.

For years, LeBlanc and Doussan had talked about such a venture. LeBlanc financed the construction of the stage via her Bold Sphere company, which specializes in music, film and “green”-related initiatives. “The sense of urgency to put that stage there was mine and mine alone,” she said.

Blue Deuce/Red Mountain developed the concert series and will promote many of its shows, but does not have an exclusive right to present shows there. Other promoters are likely to book concerts at Champions Square as well.

The modest size and enhanced amenities are in keeping with a national trend away from 15,000-capacity “shed” amphitheaters outside of major cities, in favor of smaller, “boutique” amphitheaters in downtown areas, Doussan and Wilson said.

Gathering in a “square” fits into New Orleans' cultural history and context, LeBlanc said, from Lafayette Square – where the Saints sponsor the YLC’s free Wednesday at the Square concert series each spring – to Jackson Square. The reborn Champions Square “seems more like a European piazza,” LeBlanc said. “It has a completely different, dramatic feel.”

The lack of such a venue is why many acts often skip New Orleans when traveling between markets in Texas and Florida.

“The new venue will not take away from the New Orleans Arena,” Doussan said. “It will enhance the city’s ability to land acts that would have bypassed us and not played the area.”

Owen is one example. Red Mountain/Blue Deuce has him at an amphitheater in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Aug. 21, at another “boutique” amphitheater in Orange Beach, Ala., on Aug. 22, and then Champions Square on Aug. 23.

The mix of performers in the concert series will touch on a range of musical tastes. “I’m really pushing for diversity,” LeBlanc said. “It’s got to be balanced – rock, pop, country, alternative.

“It’s fun to tell people (who will perform) and have their faces get glow-y about who they can see outside, and up close.”

Additional development is likely in store for the area around Champions Square. A plethora of high-profile events in the downtown sports and entertainment district will only make New Orleans more attractive to businesses that factor in such quality of life issues when deciding where to base themselves, LeBlanc said.

“We’re all incentivized…to accentuate more of the city,” she said. “To show why our city is so great.”

Keith Spera can be reached at kspera@nola.com or 504.826.3470. Follow him on Twitter @KeithSpera.